All Purpose P/U

[wroughtn_harv]

I've been using William's pipe knotcher for about fifteen years. As far as I'm concerned he's one of the most ingenious old farts to ever walk the face of the earth. His old catalogs were more of a neat magazine than a catalog.

I wasn't aware he had went back to making benders. He'd made some years ago but had so many problems with them that he pulled them from production. If he's got one out there now I'd bet anything it's a good one.

The Hossfield like he show's pictured doesn't have the pipe dies. But you can order dies for the Hossfield for anything. You want a die to bend one inch square tubing in a seventeen inch radius, they'll have it.

The down side of using the Hossfield for bending without it having the hydraulic attachment is you're using leverage. It comes with a bar and then an extension for that bar. So for bending inch and a half schedule forty your need the total eleven foot of bar they provide and as much a$$ as you can beg, borrow, or steal.

 

[bgott]

We had a Hossfield bender in a mechanic/ welding/ blacksmith shop I worked in when I was 21 or so. To bend pipe with it we'd hook a come-a-long from the bar to the power hammer we had bolted to the floor. Scary setup! That bender was neat, though. You could do all sorts of neat stuff with it.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I wanted to bend some half inch by two inch bar stock on edge the other day. I could have put it in the forge and got it orange and had my way with it. Instead I put it in the Hossfield and worked it into just the shape I wanted. That's bending half inch thick by two inch wide steel bar the hard way into a fourteen inch diameter arc. The machine is truly awesome.

You can bend angle iron flange in or flange out, plate on edge like I did the half by two, pipe, bar stock, square or rectangular tubing easy way or hard way. The machine is just a miracle sitting there in the shop begging to perform.

 

[dullpain]

Don't seem to have any luck finding the bender you are talking about wroughtn harv. Can you give me better directions.

Below is a post I made 09-23-2000, in Kuboat Owning / Operating (before board expanded subjects) called Cool Tool. Don't know if anybody bought or not. Haven't heard.



For those of you interested in fabracation of brackets, levers, handles, etc. Or just general metalworking go visit the site at www.shopoutfitters.com There you will find a "Compact Bender" that is an amazing shop tool. Almost unlimited uses and makes professional pieces at a reasonable cost. They also have some other (ring roller, etc.) nice fabracation tools.

I am in the maintenance profession and have been for 28 years. 20 years actually bending wrenches (mechanic) on equipment of various types in a manufacturing plant. 8 years ago went into Management and yes I do regret it sometimes but my arthritis is better now. Our Plant Maint. Dept. has 150 employees at various levels ranging from Electronic Technicicans to General Mechanics. I purchased this machine with some extra dies and the leverage multiplier for our Plant Shop. I was so impressed with the ease of operation and professional end product that I have since bought the basic compact bender for my home shop. When I retire and can no longer "borrow" the extra dies my Plant shop has I'm sure to purchase extra for me.

Now don't go beating me up if you look at the web site and fall in love with this thing and spend $200 - $800 and then gripe because you should have bought an implement for your tractor instead. MChalkey will probably have to haveone just to make headlight brackets. Hell maybe I can make some tiltmeter brackets and sell em to RB to offset my investment.

Go look and if you buy let us all know how it works for you.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

That <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.shopoutfitters.com/Products/tdr.htm>compact roller</A> is a Hossfield knockoff. Northern carries a version. And so does Great Plains.

The difference is capacity. A Hossfield Number 2 will allow you to bend two inch schedule forty pipe or five eighths by three cold into one eighties.

For a home shop the compact bender would be fine. If you threw away two thirds of the attachments and dies it'd be a good addition to have on the truck. (I carry a Hossfield knock off made by a friend on my truck that has just three pins and a single sleeve. It does wonders.)

But the beauty of these tools is the only limitation is the imagination of the owner.